Blowing Smoke
Love Never Dies, prt. 9
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
May30, 2010
I want to talk to you about grace this morning. But before I do that, I want to talk to you about…marijuana.
1. Years ago when Bill Clinton was facing criticism that he had smoked pot in college, remember what he said? He said he sucked the smoke into his mouth but “did not inhale.” That line’s a classic, isn’t it? Whether you believe this or not (and I suspect most don’t), Clinton was onto something. If you don’t inhale, there is no effect. If you don’t inhale, nothing happens – in the end, you’re just blowing smoke.
2. To be Christian is to believe – at least in our heads – that the world is filled with grace – that it is everywhere. That God is moving and active and alive – that (perhaps like smoke) his grace fills every room, every situation, every nation. Anybody old enough to remember the Cheech and Chong movies? I apologize for using pot imagery here in talking about God, I know that’s really weird, but I’m thinking of those pictures of those guys sitting in that van just completely filled with smoke. You know there’s no chance whatsoever that they’re not taking in a LOT of that smoke if they stay there for even a couple of minutes. To be a Christian is to believe – again, at least in our heads – that we’re walking through a world that is completely permeated by grace. And yet, by and large, both in the past and in the present, Christians are not normally people who are regularly exhaling grace onto others. We’re exhaling lots of things, no doubt about it, but grace is unfortunately not one of them far too often. That means that a lot of people, regardless of what they claim to believe, are just blowing smoke. You cannot exhale something unless you have first inhaled it. You cannot give what you do not have. You cannot take others to where you have not been. You cannot pass on to others what you have not received.
3. There are many Christians who have noticed this problem and are working hard, with good intentions, to correct it. The problem is that many Christians, though well-intentioned, do not regularly live in the stream of grace. They are not inhaling, so to speak. They are not taking grace and love into their lives, therefore no matter how hard they try, they cannot adequately breathe it out. They’re blowing smoke. If what we take in is creeds and doctrines and rules and convictions, then we will pass on to others creeds and doctrines and rules and convictions, and nothing more. If what we take in is an ongoing experience of God’s presence – of God’s love, God’s grace, God’s forgiveness, God’s sufficiency – then that is what will come out of us. It cannot be any other way.
Matthew 12:35 (NIV)
35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.
4. I begin with this today because we need to see that passing grace to other people is not something that should require effort. In fact, if it requires effort, then it is not grace. Grace is not something we bestow to others, or give or grant to them. It is something we exhale upon them. It is the natural result of what we are inhaling, what we are receiving, what we are taking in. If you fill your mind and heart with striving and perfectionism, you will require it of others. If you don’t forgive yourself for being flawed and broken, you will not be able to allow others to be flawed and broken either. If you see God as requiring you to be better before he will love you, then you will expect others to be better before God can love them. You will find yourself constantly disappointed in people, always let down whenever you realize that here’s one more broken person, one more person who doesn’t have it together. And on days when you are doing well at meeting your own standards for yourself, you’ll feel great about yourself and probably look down all the more on others, thinking, “I’ve got it together, what’s the matter with you?” Then, even if you do try to grant grace, you’ll see it as benevolent, wonderful you giving to someone else something they don’t deserve and this will make you feel one up and superior. Grace CANNOT be given with effort because when effort is required, the very effort we are making puts the focus back on us and our efforts and then whatever is given is not grace.
5. I want to look at John 8 today, the account of the woman caught in adultery. This is by far one of my favorite accounts in all of scripture and shows both the amazing grace and the amazing brilliance of the Logos – of Jesus.
John 8:1-11 (NIV)
1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.
3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group
4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.
5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger.
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11 "No one, sir," she said. "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."
5. First we see here that after the row that took place at the temple the previous night, everyone went home (“everyone went to his own home”)– except Jesus, who went to the Mt. of Olives. What did Jesus do at the Mt. of Olives? He prayed. Now prayer is not primarily speaking. Prayer is getting into good space. To get into good space is to get into God space. To pray is to commune with God. To commune with God, we must go to the place where God is. Therefore to pray is to let go of distraction, of resentment, bitterness, anxiety, regret, shame, etc. That is prayer at its best. Many of us pray with words, but even as we speak we hold on to the very things which make prayer impossible. So after being heavily criticized and perhaps almost murdered at the temple the day before, when everyone else goes home, Jesus gets alone in a quiet place and gets his head straight – makes sure that he remains in God space. You can’t do God’s work if you’re not in God’s space. That’s the problem with most Christians today. Many well-meaning, sincere people are trying to do God’s work, but they’re not in God’s space. They’re trying to exhale grace but haven’t experienced grace in a long time. They’re trying to exhale love, but haven’t directly experienced the love of God in a long time, perhaps ever. And surely then, whatever comes out of them might have some good things in it, but it will most certainly not be grace and love. You cannot give what you do not have. And when you try, you will just be blowing smoke. Something’s coming out, but it didn’t get very deeply into you – hasn’t really changed you in any significant way. You’re just blowing smoke. If you think that might be you, don’t be discouraged – I’ll show you later why this is probably okay!
6. So Jesus prays and then what? Goes right back to the seat of controversy – starts doing exactly what he was doing the previous day – teaching the people. The religious teachers bring in this woman caught in the act of adultery. You could have a lot of fun with that. How did they know she was in the act of adultery in order to catch her? Were they spying? Peeping toms? Where’s the dude? Last I knew it takes two people to commit adultery, and they clearly catch her in the act, and yet somehow the man gets away? If they are anything like some of our modern TV evangelists, they might have caught her in the act only after watching for a while and enjoying it. But then they turn around and act all self-righteous and indignant with her and bring her to Jesus ready to kill her.
7. The religious leaders are ready to kill this woman. They have their religious law behind them. This is what it means to be righteous in the eyes of God. Understand, my friends, judgment and murder is all these people were capable of breathing. That is what came out of them, why? Because they were terrible people? That’s too simple. If we demonize all of them, we miss the lesson in here for us. Some of them were probably evil, but probably the majority were just like you and me – well-meaning people who wanted to be faithful to their religion and do what they believed was right. [And we need to see that nowhere in this passage does Jesus ever engage them on whether it is right or wrong to kill this woman. That discussion never happens. Later on we’ll look at why.] Jesus said that we can only bring up what is in our hearts. There were people standing here ready to kill this woman because they were the kind of people whose hearts stood ready to do this, despite that fact that they were not all bloodthirsty, murderous people. With good hearts and intentions we can do terrible things, especially when we believe God is on our side. That is simply the record of history. Just keep in mind, for now, that the religious people here were ready to breathe out upon this woman the skanky air they were breathing in. They had not experienced love. They had not experienced grace. They had not experienced compassion and most of them probably saw themselves as people who were not even in need of compassion. Aren’t we good, we keep all these rules and hold others accountable for doing so as well. The stale air of vengeance, law, justice without mercy, and righteousness without grace was all they had received, and therefore all they were capable of giving. To this day, many religious people continue to breathe out their skanky air all over those around them.
8. Then they approach Jesus wanting to trap him. If Jesus says “kill her,” he’s contradicting his own teaching of love. If he says, “Let her go,” he’s breaking the law. This is a tough one. And how does Jesus approach this? He doesn’t. Please don’t miss this. He simply doesn’t engage. He doesn’t get involved in a debate with them about the rightness and wrongness of killing this woman. He doesn’t lecture them about how cold their hearts have become. He doesn’t pull out chapter and verse of the Torah and try to explain it to them. He doesn’t criticize them. He doesn’t challenge their belief system in any direct way. He simply stoops down and writes in the sand. He only responds at all when the people keep questioning him. In other words, he refuses to lead this charge. He refuses to get militant. He refuses to be taken in, either by the murderous anger of the people, or by what is probably the desperate sobs of the woman. What Jesus was doing here, I believe, is whatever was necessary to continue in prayer – to continue standing in that stream of grace and love and mercy – letting go of his human need to win, to engage, to challenge, to lecture, and to get the leg up. Letting go. Letting go. Praying – staying in God space. Then, when pressed for a response, issues a challenge to the people that could only have come from the flow of God’s grace. Instead of arguing about the rules, rightness, wrongness, or any of that, Jesus turns it inward.
John 8:7-8 (NIV)
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."
8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
Now that was risky. After Jesus made this statement, someone could have stepped out and thrown that first stone, and we can only assume that if they had, the stoning would have been on (I guess we’ll never know). We also should assume that Jesus did not know for sure what would happen – he was human. He was speaking by faith in that moment, coming from a place of prayer and connection with God.
What we need to see here is that just like the religious people responded the only way they could have (you have to exhale, right? You don’t have a choice not to exhale!), Jesus did as well. Because Jesus was in God space, he found a way to respond without confronting, without making the situation more volatile.
9. So the people drop their rocks and split. They probably didn’t leave with good hearts, they were probably just too embarrassed to commence with the stoning, but either way, Jesus made peace and saved the life of that woman that day. We see the shriveled hands that Jesus heals, the people he raises from death, the blind eyes that see, and we call them miracles. But what happens here in John 8 is perhaps one of his very finest miracles – getting himself out of the trap they laid for him, while saving the life of this clearly sinful woman – and doing it without a word of protest, a single word spoken in anger or defiance, without a single insult, a single challenge to their belief system, without even responding to their question – absolutely brilliant. God still heals physically today, I believe that – but even more obvious today are these kinds of miracles where God brings things of amazing peace and joy and beauty out of the worst of circumstances. That’s God for you. That’s the Logos, God with skin on. That’s what God can do, and it’s what you, as you learn to live in the stream of grace, are going to increasingly be able to do as well. How far away are you from that? How far away are you from being able to resist engagement, stay away from those who are trying to pull you into their own sick emotions, stay centered, stay in the place of prayer, and respond with wisdom and peace from God? We have to see this and realize how vastly different the heart of Jesus was in its nature from the heart of those religious people, and how different is his heart from yours and from mine.
10. Now realize, we haven’t yet even gotten to the part where Jesus addresses this woman. All of this amazingness, all of this beautiful stuff happening, all of this character and wisdom that can only come from the heart of God, and Jesus has not yet even spoken a word to her. When he does, he says, “Who condemns you, woman?” The woman, who I’m sure has been in a heap at the feet of Jesus, covering her head, ready to receive the sharp rocks, looks up and sees that everyone is gone. No one stands to condemn her. No one. It’s just her at the feet of the one person who extends her grace – the one person whose grace is so sufficient that the judgments of all who were against her now mean nothing. She looks around and answers his question, I’m sure with great surprise, “No one, Lord.”
My friends, this woman is you. This woman is me. Every one of us lives with a sense of condemnation and accusation. We hear the voices all the time – voices of our parents, or teaches, or peers, voices of the religious holier-than-thou who have not experienced grace and will keep you from experiencing grace as well if you let them. Voices of our boss, of a critical and demanding spouse, voices of our own perfectionistic expectations of ourselves. Those voices shout so loudly that we do not hear Jesus when he says, “Who condemns you?” Therefore we do not look up and realize no one is really there. We are at the feet of the one who is sufficient – who alone can silence the voices. We are already in his presence, as guilty as this woman ever was, as clueless as she was, and yet – as she did – receiving from Jesus the words that can bring us new life, that give us a second chance.
11. Finally we see Christ’s last recorded words to her. “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.” See, we have it backwards. We think we’re supposed to leave our sin behind so that we can experience the grace of God. A lot of us are still working on that – trying to clean up this or that so we can be closer to God. But in fact, it is the grace of God that changes our lives, that brings us to where we can change, where we see our need for change, where we deeply know that we need it.
12. This woman received the grace of God at the only place it can be received. At the feet of Jesus, with her enemies all around ready to swallow her up, with her life on the line, with no power, no strings to pull, nowhere else to turn, no way out, probably nothing more than a piece of thin linen covering her nakedness before everyone around her. Until we reach that place where we understand, “I am this woman caught in adultery. My enemies are all around ready to swallow me up, my life as I know it is on the line, I have no power, no strings to pull, I have no way out, and almost nothing or nothing at all covering my shame” – until we get there, we are not in a place to receive grace. As long as we stand erect, proud, spine straight, looking Jesus in the eye as an equal, we cannot receive grace, for we do not even know that we need it. Until we get to a place where we say, “I can’t do this anymore. I’m not sufficient. I’m out of tricks. There’s nothing more I can do to make my life better. My marriage, my job, my reputation, my self-concept, or something else critical in my life is on the line and at the end of the line and I am ruined – God, please help me.” That puts us in the place where we can receive grace. Those are the holes in our life where the light can get in. When we can’t fix it, we can’t forget about it, and we can’t feel good about it, and we know that without God’s grace and compassion we are completely hosed – it is then that Jesus says, “Who condemns you, my friend?” And it is then that you look up and realize that the correct answer is not, “My self, my church, my religion, my denomination, my boss, my friends, my parents, my child – but you look up and for the first time they are all gone and you respond to Jesus, with wonder and amazing gratitude, “No one, Lord.”
But I’ll be honest – a lot of people, even religious people, just aren’t there. We don’t deeply sense our need for God. We haven’t been humiliated deeply enough like the woman in our story today. Maybe we haven’t suffered enough. Maybe we haven’t run out of ideas yet. We haven’t reached rock bottom, and we’re still holding out that there’s something we can do to fix ourselves, to bail ourselves out, to settle the accounts with God so we don’t end up debtors. We live in an affluent society. We drive nice cars and most of us have nice jobs. Most of us are probably not out hopping in the sack with different people every night. Most of us aren’t addicts or gamblers. We don’t see ourselves as kneeling at the feet of Christ in need of grace. We believe we are respectable. We buy nice things for ourselves and our families. We go to church and maybe give some money. We listen to the voices of our accusers, but mistake them for God’s voice – we think God is the one punishing us, driving us ruthlessly forward, or patting us on the head telling us how wonderful we are. But that’s not God.
Jesus is for losers, my friends. The gospel is not a winner’s script, but a loser’s script. Until we identify with this broken woman at the feet of Jesus, until we feel deep down how completely she is us, we will not inhale. We will be blowing smoke with our religion, no matter how sincerely. But there’s even good news in that. We cannot, and should not, try to produce the suffering and/or humiliation it might require to bring us to identify with her. God is sufficient for us and will produce in us all that is needed to bring us to completion. All we need is hearts that continually cry out for him to do that and are waiting expectantly for grace to appear.
So, if you are in a place of brokenness at this time, be encouraged – grace might be breaking through! You might be ready to inhale deeply of God’s grace, and only then will you be in a position to exhale that grace into the lives of others. If you do not sense yourself as broken, and you are living out a religion which you deeply believe but is not coming from an ongoing personal experience of grace and love, God is FOR you, even while you are blowing smoke! You do not have to be any different than you are. God is a God that will give to you just what you need just as you are ready.
The world does not need more people acting graciously. The world needs more gracious people – more people who have inhaled deeply of the grace, mercy, and love of God. More people who know they are broken beyond repair and are coming to see that even in their brokenness they are as deeply loved as they will ever be. Will you join me in praying that God will give us just what we need – no more, no less – to bring us to a place where we can hear him saying to us, “I do not condemn you!”
